There’s no other way to describe it: God is on the move!

Around the world, people’s lives are being transformed when they encounter Jesus through Scripture in a language and format they clearly understand. But Bible translation today looks very different than it has in the past. In fact, we’ve witnessed unprecedented acceleration these last few years — even in the midst of a global pandemic.

Today, local believers and churches are not only asking for Scripture, but they are taking ownership of the work too. As the global Church has increased vision of and ownership in the work of Bible translation, there has been an unprecedented level of growth and impact. What happens when you can’t keep up with the amount of growth? You change the way you’re working — which is exactly what we’re witnessing today!

Through Global Partnerships (a multi-organizational collaboration), Wycliffe Bible Translators engaged with almost 500 new languages in 2022. This was a significant increase from the 150 new languages engaged in 2020 — more than we ever had at that point, and in the middle of a global pandemic too.

This exponential growth is bigger than any of us. Bible translation cannot be done without God’s hand at work in the lives of people joining together through prayer, giving, personnel resourcing and local ownership. God is calling us to join Him in His global mission of making His name known among the nations. That means Wycliffe and our partners are going to need to be innovative in our approach to answering the global Church’s call for Scripture in languages still waiting to hear, see or read God’s Word for themselves. It’s going to require God-sized faith goals and being willing to say “yes” in new and stretching ways.

One of the ways we’re able to say “yes” as an organization is through the Worldwide Projects Fund. Because of generous giving, a new Bible translation project was started at a rate of more than one per day in 2022! In addition, projects reaching translation milestones were able to continue so that Scripture can serve as the foundation for evangelism, discipleship and church planting efforts.

Bible translation is a God-sized movement; it can’t be done without Him! It also requires working in partnership with churches and like-minded organizations around the world. We must be willing to work in different ways, try new things and continue to be innovative and collaborative. We believe access to Scripture for every language that needs it can be accomplished in our lifetime — by God’s grace and with an intentional approach toward collaboration and unity. What a joy and a privilege it is to be part of God’s global mission!